Gods and Kings (2015)

Dana Thomas tells two lives side by side: Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, both from modest London-area backgrounds, both trained at Central Saint Martins. Galliano rises to the top job at Dior; the story ends with McQueen's suicide in 2010 and Galliano's long exile after an anti-Semitic rant in France. The business reporting is what lifts it above celebrity biography: it shows how the industry's demands wore down two of the most gifted designers of their generation.